Saudi billionaire, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, arrived in Costa Rica this week, saying he wanted to build six hotels in the country, two of them in the Gulf of Papagayo in Guanacaste. Prince Al-Waleed, whose Kingdom Holding Company is the biggest foreign investor in the United States, announced his hotel investment plan after a 30-minute meeting with President Oscar Arias in Casa Presidencial.

The investments are likely to be made through the Raffles and Fairmont chains of hotels.

“We are exploring the opportunity of making additional investments in Costa Rica,” Prince Al-Waled said.

“The Four seasons Hotel operating in Papagayo has placed Costa Rica on the radar of the five-star hotel customers of the world,” he added.

“It is too early to talk about amounts to invest and time terms. However the project development companies are discussing the convenience of establishing the Raffles and Fairmont hotels in this country.”

In January last year he and a partner --- the US real estate company Colony Capital --- closed a $3.9 billion deal to buy Fairmont Hotel & Resorts. Today Fairmont has 53 hotels and resorts in 11 countries, mostly in Canada and the US.

More recently Prince Al-Waleed announced that, with Bill Gates, he would take the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotel chain private for $3.8 billion, including debt.

The bid was made up of three separate investors, which include Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment LLC, Isadore Sharp, chief executive and chairman of the Four Seasons Hotels LLC, as well as the 52-year-old Prince.

The Prince would not be drawn on where all the hotels might be sited, but he said: “Costa Rica has a democratic system and political and economical stability that provide the necessary confidence to increase investments in this country,” he said.

Prince Al-Waleed and his entourage of about 50 arrived at Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport from Panama on board his private Boeing 747-400, in the green and white livery of the Kingdom Holding Company. The huge jetliner can travel more than 13,000 kilometers (about 7200 miles) without re-fuelling at a cruising speed of 900 kilometers per hour (about 560mph).

A smaller, Raytheon Hawker 800-A business jet, in matching colors, accompanied the bigger plane.

The entourage took 48 rooms in Peninsula Papagayo’s Four Seasons Hotel. Contrary to earlier reports, there were other guests in the hotel.

He did not play golf, but walked the property extensively.

“He was absolutely fascinated with the beauty of the project,” said one familiar with the Prince’s movements. “It is the first time he had come and I don’t think he expected so much beauty.”

The Prince and his entourage left Costa Rica on Tuesday, flying on to Guatemala, before continental USA and Hawaii.

Prince Al-Waleed is grandson of King Abdul Azis al Sad, who founded Saudi Arabia in 1932, nephew of the current ruler King Abdalà, and grandson of Riad El-Solh, the first Prime Minister of modern day Lebanon.

According to Forbes magazine, the Prince was last year the 13th richest person in the world. His estimated net wealth of $20.3 million puts him a mere $400 million behind 84-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, daughter of L’Oréal founder Eugene Schueller and $200 million ahead of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the petrochemicals billionaire.

The difference is Prince Al-Waleed’s fortune is self-made.

After graduating from Menlo College with a Bachelor of Arts and from Syracuse University with a Master of Science, he is reported to have used a $30,000 loan from his father to begin brokering deals with foreign companies wanting to do business in Saudi Arabia.

This was followed by land deals in the 1980s, along with major investments in the Saudi banking industry, which proved to be undervalued at the time. His activities as an investor really took off when he bought a substantial chunk of shares in an ailing Citibank, in the 1990s. His holdings in Citibank are now said to account for half his wealth.

He also has a seven per stake in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation Limited and has made big investments in AOL, Apple Inc., Worldcom, and Motorola.

While considered to be outside politics, he drew the ire of New Yorkers and the then Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the US. While touring the site of the World Trade Center attack, he suggested the United States “should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.”

Mayor Giuliani subsequently rejected the Prince’s $10 million donation to disaster relief.